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Sesame Street VP Explains Parody to Bill O’Reilly
Sesame Workshop Executive Vice President Sherrie Westin appeared on Fox News to explain to Bill O’Reilly how parody works. Also on hand was a new muppet — Spill O’Reilly, a grouch. Or should I say a Grouch, as in Oscar the Grouch. “Welcome to the No-Spew Zone.”Spill O’Reilly is an anchor on GNN, the Grouch News Network. In his appearance on The Factor, Spill even plugs his new book, “A Stinky Rotten Pile of Grouchiness!”
This visit came about because of Sesame Street’s recent skit where they “mocked” Fox News, calling it “Pox News.” (Read Jeanne Sager’s post on the topic here.)
Spill is, of course, a muppetized Bill. O’Reilly should be honored — not everyone gets their own muppet. (Walter Cranky and Dan Rathernot are two other anchors who did.)
Sesame Workshop Executive Vice President Sherrie Westin explains to Bill, subtly, that the spleen-venting that occurred after Sesame Street aired a sketch referring to Pox News was a tad overwrought. Well, maybe I’m reading too much into her appearance. You know, the way the blogger Stage Right at Andrew Breitbart’s BigHollywood did when he posted ‘Sesame Street’ Trashes Fox News. Actually, it appears that the Spill O’Reilly character took his name from this particular blog entry, which complained that there were “no affectionate nicknames for Fox News personalities; no Spill O’Reilly or Brittle Hume”. You know, affectionate nicknames like “Meredith Beware-a” and “Diane Spoiler.”
Westin worked for the George H. W. Bush administration in the 90′s, a fact that could help dispel the notion that someone Sesame Workshop is run by psycho liberals who want to indoctrinate our children in their evil left wing ways. Because, you know, children really know who Bill O’Reilly and Fox News are. And they care.
I do want to point out one thing, though. It is very possible, even likely, that the folks at Sesame Street WERE making fun of Fox News. And despite what anyone says, it’s OK to do that in America. Or are conservatives the only people allowed to have opinions?
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